


You’re Everything

by RantingSalads



Category: IT - Stephen King
Genre: Christmas Vibes, F/M, Fluff, Ice Skating, Kissing, M/M, One Shot, i need to stop saying vibes, okay maybe a little bit of sad but its to emphasize the happiness its called TECHNIQUE MOM, there is NO sad!!, this is very reddie centric i will not lie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:28:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26334913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RantingSalads/pseuds/RantingSalads
Summary: Eddie had no idea how he’d gotten roped into this. It was three a.m. He was tired. It was cold. And his mom had no idea he was currently on his way to the park with nothing but a light jacket, his phone, and Bev, who he was forbidden from hanging out with. (Despite the fact that he would never actually listen to that command in a million years.)——aka: Richie Bev and Ben plan a double date stupid early in the morning at the (very temporary) behest of our favorite short king
Relationships: Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 5
Kudos: 24





	You’re Everything

**Author's Note:**

> This isn’t super long but I had the concept and then I freaked it 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!!

Eddie had no idea how he’d gotten roped into this. It was three a.m. He was tired. It was cold. And his mom had no idea he was currently on his way to the park with nothing but a light jacket, his phone, and Bev, who he was forbidden from hanging out with. (Despite the fact that he would never actually listen to that command in a million years.)

One moment he was dreaming blissfully of going on a road trip across the East Coast, seeing the ocean and soaking in the sun- until Toxic by Britney Spears jolted him out of his trance and immediately activated his fight or flight instinct. Richie had stolen his phone a week ago and changed his contact’s ringtone, “so that way you’ll always know when it’s me” he explained with a stupid goofy grin. It would have made Eddie smile thinking about it under normal circumstances, but currently trying to avoid going into cardiac arrest upon realizing that it’s the version of the song that gets faster was taking up more brain space.

Within seconds though, he’d gotten himself oriented and answered the phone before it could wake up The Beast, as the Losers had taken to calling his mom lately. “You better have a good reason for ruining my beauty sleep, dick.” He hastily whispered through the speaker.

“Oh ho ho! On a first name basis now are we Mr.K!” Richie’s too-cheerful-for-three-fucking-a-m voice said.

“It’s just more exciting when you skip the formalities; I like calling people what they are.” Eddie deadpanned.

“You wound me, Eds.” He could imagine Richie pretending to feign being shot in the heart, which again would have made him smile if it wasn’t such a GOD FORSAKEN HOUR!

“Get to the point.”

“Aye, sir! I need ye teh bring yeself and won Mess Marsh teh the pahk roit thes insent ye hea?” Richie answered in a slowly, slowly improving Australian accent.

“You want me” a pause “to go the the park” another pause “at three in the morning" and another "with Bev?” Eddie was incredulous.

“That is what I said, yup!”

“And why is this, again?”

“Just ‘caaauuuse,” Richie made his voice sound like a teenage girl on the phone twirling her finger in the curly wire- Eddie hated how he knew that’s exactly what he was going for.

“You’re out of your mind. Goodnight!”

“EDDIE NO!” And Eddie stopped. Something in Richie’s voice sounded genuinely desperate, “you’re forgetting I’m also up at three in the morning at the park with Ben. Look, he’s waving.” A pause. “You’ll just have to take my word for it. Anyways. We have a surprise for you, please, please come. He’s already called Bev and she’s on her way to your house, don’t make a lady wait in the cold!”

Eddie audibly sighed and closed his eyes, and for a split second sleep called him, but then he groaned and rolled, yes rolled, up into a sitting position and spoke softly. He barely managed out, “ok. But it better be good,” while trying to contain his own smile before he heard Richie exclaim from the other end of the line.

Okay so maybe he knew exactly how he’d gotten roped into this. But that doesn’t matter, he was still regretting it. Even if he barely tried to resist it. And he made sure Bev knew.

“I just don’t get why this couldn’t have waited until tomorrow, it’s Friday night- or, fuck, Saturday morning! I’m sure whatever this is could have waited until the light of day when, I don’t know, there’s less of a chance of getting mugged! Or the sun has warmed this shithole up a little bit! I mean, the park lights are on but they don’t work that well, and I needed to leave as light as possible or my mom would have heard and so I could get hypothermia right now. Like literally I might die Bev, and this is all Richie’s fault. I bet he made Ben do whatever this is. God I can NOT believe im awake right now it’s so fucking early! Look Bev there is literally snow on the ground!” And he stomps to make a point, like she couldn’t see the snow without his foot hitting it as hard as possible. “Are you even listening?” Eddie said in one breath.

“Hm? Me? Oh pf no way, if I indulged you would have worked yourself up to an ulcer” Bev responded with a nonchalant smile. Eddie eyed her closely, scrunching up his nose. “You seriously are adorable Eddie, if I wasn’t taken by someone as great as Ben I’d lose my mind.”

Eddie wasn’t fooled. “Thanks, but I know you’re also up to whatever this is.” He concluded, facing forward with a humf and walking faster. They had entered the park and were starting to walk to the landmark Ben had sent in a group chat Richie had made named ‘Taken Gang, Gang’.

Bev had to jog to keep up with Eddie because she stopped to literally laugh out loud, “you get so mad dude! I promise it’s nothing bad, but if we’d told you it wouldn’t have worked. No offense but you suck ass at keeping secrets and your mom would have taken one look at you and there would have been metal bars on your window again.” Eddie cringes at the memory, he’d gotten caught coming back inside after sneaking out freshman year and had to go an entire summer literally jailed. “I honestly think you’ll really enjoy it.”

He couldn’t even pretend to be annoyed at Bev and turned around with a shit eating smile, “offense taken, but might not be taken if you can at least tell me what it is.”

“Then it wouldn’t be a surprise, doofus.”

“Then it wouldn’t be a surprise, doofus!” Eddie mocked Bev.

“In the words of one of the wisest men I know, ‘you wound me, Eds’,” and it’s Bev’s turn to do the mocking as they both erupt into laughter, only to be cut short by a very deep and macho yelp from Eddie as Richie surprise tickles him from behind, which only makes Bev laugh harder.

“Richie!” Eddie yells with no real fire behind it.

“Babe, please, if you’re gonna scream my name at least wait until we’re alone” Richie responds, which earns a punch to his arm. Then, in literally the same motion, Eddie oh-so-sweetly taps Richie's shoulder to get his ear down to a reasonable height.

All of this happens as Ben suavely approaches Bev and bows with his hand out, “Ms.Marsh.” She takes it and giggles as he pulls her into a hug spin and kisses her on the forehead, arguably the best part about his growth spurt in Junior year.

The moment is ruined by a sputtering red-faced Richie, “I-I think we should head over! Yup! Let’s go, right now! Fuck- uh, dick joke! You guys are gross joke! Ha ha!”

Eddie rolls his eyes and takes Richie’s hand with a half-fond half-smug smirk on his face, “you’re all Barack and no ‘bama.”

“What does that even mean?” Ben asks, totally confused.

“Means Rich over here can’t take in what he dishes out” Bev clarifies, also suddenly smug.

“Okay I literally hate all of you. Except for Ben, because he’s never done anything and will never do anything wrong ever. So I just hate you and Eddie.” Richie says matter of factly. 

“Bold words coming from the boy who is literally holding my hand,” Eddie retorts.

“Big attitude coming from a boy as small as Bev’s dick!” Richie shoots back

“And yet,” Ben jokes quietly to Bev as he gestures to the other two’s bumping shoulders and locked fingers. 

“Excuse me Bev’s dick is enormous, thank you.” “Bigger than mine?” “By leagues, asshole.” “You seriously wound me!” And they continue like this, with the occasional interjection from Ben or Bev, who are in their own soft-spoken world. It’s always like this. It’s nice.

It doesn’t take long for Eddie to spot what he’s being led to, considering it’s near pitch black out save for the shitty park lights. Richie and Ben had strung christmas lights around the trees, illuminating a small frozen pond out of sight from, well, everything. It was large enough to have to shout to be heard across, but not big enough for the banks to be out of sight. The sense of privacy and seclusion would have normally set him on edge, but in the moment, listening to the gentle whispers of Ben and Bev and watching Richie run ahead? It filled him with so much love and appreciation it felt like his heart would burst.

The snow all around had been tread flat, meaning the two had been at work for a long time. With the finishing details of a large thermos of what Eddie assumed to be hot cocoa next to four pairs of ice skates and mugs, it felt like a scene straight out of a Hallmark movie.

“Holy shit” Eddie breathed. 

“Holy fuck!” Bev states more eloquently.

“We know we missed the official town sponsored ice skating weekends and knew how much you two loved those cheesy movies and thought to ourselves, that’s doable, right?” Ben started timidly, “and turns out, it is! I hope you guys like it!” 

“Ben, this is beautiful!” Eddie exclaimed, beaming. 

“Well fuck me I guess!” 

“Rich,” and Eddie walked up to where Richie was standing, “shut up.” But he couldn’t mean those words less, with a smile on his face and genuine content in his eyes; Richie knew that. 

“The way you two communicate will always be confusing to me,” Ben says with a chuckle. 

“Same, eddie could literally call richie a pig and richie could respond with ´at least I banged your mom’ or something and then they’d make out two seconds later. Bonkers.” Bev added. 

“You talk like we’re not right here,” Eddie proves a point by gesturing to his feet. 

“Exactly! And plus, I would respond with ‘that’s not what your mom said last night.’ Get it right Bev.” Which earned Richie a smack on the back of the head by every other party present. 

It took an embarrassing amount of time and falls to get the ice skates on, but the four managed without any cuts and counted it as a win. The night was filled with laughter and inside jokes as they got used to skating again, interrupted only twice by Richie declaring the song Ben was playing from his phone wasn’t “festive but also romantic” enough. However, once everyone got their bearings it turned out Richie rocked at being on the ice. Within 20 minutes he was going backward, spinning, and attempting to moonwalk. Bev found it especially funny when he fell on his ass and literally almost cried.

“It’s what she desehved,” Bev quoted in a bad british impersonation from the other side of the lake.

“Stop that! Voices are my thing!” Richie yelled back as he got up.

“Hey,” Eddie called softly. As if telepathically communicated, Richie opened his arms and the two lazily coasted in a hug.

“Where’s your jacket Spaghetti?” Richie played with Eddie’s flimsy hoodie.

“What do you mean?” He mumbled into Richie’s side.

“Normally you’d have two pairs of gloves on, a scarf, three jackets, a long sleeve shirt, two pants-”

“Normally my mom quadruple checks me before I leave,” Eddie cut Richie off. There’s a moment of comfortable silence, then he smiles. “Thanks for setting this all up, by the way. It’s seriously beautiful and quite honestly one of the most random and nice things anyone has ever done like ever.”

Richie looks a little stunned for a second, never having learned how to respond to compliments, then melts into a smile, dropping his head. “I thought of it months ago, but needed someone with the planning skill to help me and thought it would have been a good opportunity to do something with the Double B’s over there.” He chuckles, “I’m glad you like it though. I was super worried y-” but he can’t finish. Eddie is kissing him softly, and Richie kisses back.

“We both have a habit of working ourselves up, huh?” Eddie mumbles against his lips.

“I guess you could say that, yeah.” With their arms wrapped around each other surrounded by the soft yellow glow of christmas lights, and Eddie looking at him with those beautiful brown eyes, Richie felt something tug at his stomach. Not for the first time. He slowly reached up and brushed a stray bit of hair behind Eddie’s ear. “Your hair has gotten longer.” His hair was not actually long by any means, but ever since elementary Eds had always kept it the same length. Longer on top and ever so slightly tapered on the bottom, not in any particular style but always just barely too short to do anything but run your hands through it. Every second Sunday, after Eddie was dragged to church, every three months from 2-2:30pm at Zee’s Barbers on the corner of Green St. This is probably the longest it has ever been in his life, and Richie is internally taken aback by such a small realization. He hadn’t realized how intimately he knew him.

His whole life he'd been experiencing, learning from, bantering with, and observing the dude in front of him. They’d been through rough patches, sure, and one extra super rough patch that Richie had spent weeks, maybe months isolating himself and crying over, but they always ended up telling each other everything. He could write a series of novels about Everything Eddie, half of it being new information to the world. The nape of his neck, the bottom of his chest, the inside of his heart, the palm of his hand- he knew it all like it was his own, and this knowledge only grew in the past few months. Yes, they hadn’t been dating for very long, but not a single soul in the entire world could match him the way Eddie’s so perfectly does.

“Yeah,” Eddie responds after half a second, “I stopped going with my mom every Sunday and promised her I’d get it cut on my own. Then I just didn’t.” And he pauses again. “This is so weird.”

Richie’s heart drops, “what?” Eddie’s eyes soften somehow even more, and he snorts a little and then he’s out of Richie’s arms but still holding onto his hand and he’s doubled over laughing laughing laughing and Richie is calm now, could listen to his laugh for forever.

Eddie stands back up and sticks his tongue out and suddenly takes off away from Richie, still smiling. Richie glances at Ben and Bev, who are dancing, and back to Eddie who is half way across the lake now, still beelining to the backpack of stuff they’d brought. “OOOOOHHHHHHH!” Richie exclaims, and takes off after him.

“You’re an idiot!” Eddie exclaims.

“You’re ruining the moment!” Ben and Bev chime in at the same time, and start laughing over the coincidence, so obviously in love.

Richie doesn’t know how Eddie, who is now taking off his skates and shoving his sneakers on, had gotten over there so fast. Then the little shit grabs something out of the bag and keeps fucking running. Richie can’t help but think in a line of curses, he’s having fun, but what was Eddie planning? Maybe he wasn’t planning. That’s something new he does now. It doesn’t matter, because now his own shoes are on and he’s chasing the short silhouette farther from civilization.

He’s within reaching distance, and he half tackles the still laughing Eddie to the ground, the untouched snow on the ground being just deep enough for their fall to be perfectly padded. Eddie squirms and Richie takes it as an opportunity and starts tickling the boy beneath him, hitting every spot he knows. They’re both breathless and laughing as they sit up a bit, and they look each other in the eye, then like two waves crashing they’re intertwined. 

“Hold on, hold on-” Eddie pulls away for a second and grabs the blanket, setting it open near a tree. In the three seconds that this takes to occur, Richie misses kissing Eddie. No, he just misses Eddie. Then just like that he is sitting down with his back against a tree and the most important person in the world in his lap and the universe could collapse in on itself in a fiery explosion and he wouldn’t care, because he was with Eddie. Eddie Eddie Eddie.

Eddie could seriously break down and cry right now, feeling this level of pure, saturated joy and content and relief only once before- and god dammit they were both because of this stupid, beautiful, green eyed, curly-haired, potty-mouthed, bad-mannered when he wanted to be, beyond kind, intensely thoughtful, super- Richie beneath him. At one point in his life, he seriously thought he had lost his closest companion in the entire world. Sure, Mike, Bev, Bill, Stan, and Ben were all his dearest friends who knew more about him than he probably did himself, but Richie is just different. He always had been. Their entire lives had been spent together at the behest of his mother, and he knew Richie with a certainty that anyone but a philosopher has that the sky is blue. Someone could ask him to draw a diagram of the stars, and instead he’d draw the constellation of random freckles that dotted Richie’s body with the precision of a cartographer. Someone could hold a week long trivia game about Richie and Eddie would fucking crush it. Losing Richie meant losing a part of himself, having lost Richie it was like losing a part of himself. The planets didn’t rotate the same those weeks. The sun hesitated before rising. His feeble attempts at normalcy ended in him breaking down behind whatever establishment he was in and later again in his bedroom. When they hugged again it felt like reality itself had ceased. It felt like that now. His heart was so full. Full of something that he didn’t know. It was easily close to 5 or 6am, he needed to head home before the sun rises and it was a 20 minute walk back, but he couldn't bring himself to truly care, because the universe could collapse in on itself in a fiery explosion, but he’d be with Richie. Richie Richie Richie.

They pull away eventually, the goofy, dazed look that only lovers get plain on their faces, breathless. It’s Eddie’s turn to mess with Richie’s hair as he runs his hands through it once more, sighing as he went, trying to tame it just a little.

“What’s up Eds?” Richie pulls him to his chest with no resistance.

“I’m just so…”

“Absolutely head over heels and stunned that I am the best kisser in the entire world” Richie says with a stupid smirk.

Eddie lightly flicks his chest and the corners of his mouth twitch up, even though he’s been in a perpetual smile all evening. “Yeah actually,” and he rests his head completely on that slowly rising and falling chest, savoring the warmth. He can still see the glow of the lights set up, and just enough of the music for it to be sufficient ambience. “I’m just so glad things have changed.” Richie hums. “Like, even this point last year I could have never directly told my mom no, over the course of the friend group coming together I’ve learned so much about who I am and what the world can offer, Bill has become secure with himself, Mike has stopped self isolating when things get bad, Bev can walk around with real confidence, I haven’t seen Stan have a panic attack in two months now, and Ben just seems so much happier. Not even to say we can’t all take a step backwards now and then. But we’ve all changed. Derry changed. Maybe it’s because I'm growing up but the buildings don’t seem so tall and terrifying anymore, the concrete doesn’t seem as dull, the streets not as bare. In the past year we’ve gotten four new stores. This place still tells me to go, but it’s not screaming it any more. Life in general seems different.” He looks up to Richie, who is watching him with that same expression he gets when he thinks Eddie can’t see him staring- adoration. His voice gets quieter, “and you. Do you even know how much you mean to me? I’ve already told you this but I seriously did not see the point in anything when all that stuff happened.” He hugged the frame beneath him tighter for a second before getting up. “Don’t ever leave me again.”

As the two walked back hand in hand, Richie didn’t say a word, which kind of scared Eddie, but he knew better. Until right before they came into view of Ben and Bev, Richie took the hand he wasn’t holding and placed a soft kiss into it, "I won’t."

“There you two are! You were gone for hours!” Ben exclaimed as Eddie looked at his watch.

“Hey babe when did twenty minutes turn into three hours?” Eddie said with complete seriousness.

Richie pretended to think for a second, “geeze Spaghetti I think about two years ago now? Get with the program loser,” and he Ruffled Ben’s hair as the four of them began to take down the set up.

“Oh my god disgusting Ben don’t talk to them they’re in one of those moods where they aren’t hiding their feelings.” Bev pretended to throw up as she tied together the shoelaces on the skates.

“Oh fuck oh god you’re right please get me a hazmat suit I don’t want to catch whatever disease is making them act like this!” He started mock-frantically wiping down his hair.

“Hardy har har,” Eddie rolled his eyes. They weren’t wrong.

It took about another twenty minutes to get everything ready to go, and by the time the four were walking back the sun was beginning to peak over the horizon. Ben broke off with Bev, since his house was near her complex, and they all said their good-byes and thank yous. Leaving just the two.

“Do you think you’ll be able to get back in all right?” Richie asked.

“I should be able to, we aren’t too far away now and The Beast usually turns off her alarm on Saturdays.”

“Yup because-” and they both said together, mockingly, “Friday’s soaps are an hour longer Eddie-Bear, and mommy needs her beauty sleep!” Erupting into a fit of laughter, using each other for support, the rest of the walk continued like that- it always ended up like that. It was so easy to just be happy with them. 

Then their journey took them to the front three steps of Eddie’s house, just like every time before that, and just like every time before that they both don’t want to go. Eddie, now on the high ground, leaned down and kissed Richie one last time- something he usually doesn’t do for fear of the neighbors or his mom- and they both savor it for a second before saying bye. And as they looked at each other one last time, like they weren’t going to see each other in a matter of hours, they both felt something as old as their bodies but fresh and warm. 

They just gazed, not saying a word, ignoring the bite to the morning air as it set into their now separated skin. Not because they didn’t want to, but because they didn’t need to. 

Because they knew each other. And they knew love.

**Author's Note:**

> AAAANNND thats all folks! Thank you so much for reading
> 
> Tell me what you think!!


End file.
